What seems to be the major motivating factor(s) for people that are affected by an eating disorder?
People seem to be affected by an eating disorder because of the images of celebrities that are sometimes exaggerated and "fake". They consider the models as their idols and celebrities as their role models – their definition of beauty is also limited to these images on TV and magazines; therefore, they starve themselves to look like them. Also, peer pressure might be another major motivating factor. If many of their friends are very skinny, then they would be motivated to lose weight to match their friends' weight.
Altruism
Are we, as some might say, motivated by a desire to save our off-spring?
-Yes, we are motivated by a desire to save our off-spring in order to save our genes and pass them onto our children. Just as the article says, our predisposition to help our children, relatives, or neighbors before anyone else shows us that genes are often times a motivator that drives us to certain actions, whether voluntary or involuntary. We simply care more about our family, ourselves, and our blood-related relatives than we do about strangers because we don't see any particular reasons to help out the strangers unless we are driven by sympathy and voluntary mindset.
Must there always be some sort of intrinsic reward for doing good?
-Yes, there must be. The reward does not have to be material or superficial, but it can just be the good feeling that you get for doing good. Achievement, pride, satisfaction, and many more would motivate people to do good things for others. Although these intrinsic rewards do not come from compassion, people still do good deeds for others, and I personally don't think our real intentions really matter as long as they are justifiable.
Mr. Otis once said, "That having integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching." If this is so, and no one knows when we have done good, would you still do good?
-I would still do good because I would dislike seeing myself breaking the rules because I want to keep my sense of morality intact. I would do good to avoid guilt; I would do good unconsciously anyway because my education from school and my parents has trained me to act in a morally just way.
"Delayed reciprocal altruism", seems like a gamble - back to game theory, any way. Does this seem to make sense to you. That is that we act out of a desire to have what we have done being done to us?
-Yes, it makes sense to me. Just as the saying goes, "Treat others the way you want to be treated," I believe that mutual altruism actually works in our society because most of us co-work, work as partners, exchange things to benefit both sides, compromise, negotiate, and take responsibilities to carry out a certain portion of the work with expectation that our partners will complete the other half of the work.
Are we ever being truly "selfless" when committing an act of altruism?
-Most times, we are not truly being "selfless" when committing an act of altruism because we either want to present ourselves as "good" or we like the superior feeling we get when giving help to those who are less unfortunate than us. But, even though it is not very frequent, some of us do commit acts of altruism because we really want to devote ourselves to the common good.
What seems to be the major motivating factor(s) for people that are affected by an eating disorder?
People seem to be affected by an eating disorder because of the images of celebrities that are sometimes exaggerated and "fake". They consider the models as their idols and celebrities as their role models – their definition of beauty is also limited to these images on TV and magazines; therefore, they starve themselves to look like them. Also, peer pressure might be another major motivating factor. If many of their friends are very skinny, then they would be motivated to lose weight to match their friends' weight.
Altruism
- Are we, as some might say, motivated by a desire to save our off-spring?
-Yes, we are motivated by a desire to save our off-spring in order to save our genes and pass them onto our children. Just as the article says, our predisposition to help our children, relatives, or neighbors before anyone else shows us that genes are often times a motivator that drives us to certain actions, whether voluntary or involuntary. We simply care more about our family, ourselves, and our blood-related relatives than we do about strangers because we don't see any particular reasons to help out the strangers unless we are driven by sympathy and voluntary mindset.- Must there always be some sort of intrinsic reward for doing good?
-Yes, there must be. The reward does not have to be material or superficial, but it can just be the good feeling that you get for doing good. Achievement, pride, satisfaction, and many more would motivate people to do good things for others. Although these intrinsic rewards do not come from compassion, people still do good deeds for others, and I personally don't think our real intentions really matter as long as they are justifiable.- Mr. Otis once said, "That having integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching." If this is so, and no one knows when we have done good, would you still do good?
-I would still do good because I would dislike seeing myself breaking the rules because I want to keep my sense of morality intact. I would do good to avoid guilt; I would do good unconsciously anyway because my education from school and my parents has trained me to act in a morally just way.- "Delayed reciprocal altruism", seems like a gamble - back to game theory, any way. Does this seem to make sense to you. That is that we act out of a desire to have what we have done being done to us?
-Yes, it makes sense to me. Just as the saying goes, "Treat others the way you want to be treated," I believe that mutual altruism actually works in our society because most of us co-work, work as partners, exchange things to benefit both sides, compromise, negotiate, and take responsibilities to carry out a certain portion of the work with expectation that our partners will complete the other half of the work.- Are we ever being truly "selfless" when committing an act of altruism?
-Most times, we are not truly being "selfless" when committing an act of altruism because we either want to present ourselves as "good" or we like the superior feeling we get when giving help to those who are less unfortunate than us. But, even though it is not very frequent, some of us do commit acts of altruism because we really want to devote ourselves to the common good.